Truist Financial Increases Block (NYSE:XYZ) Price Target to $81.00

Key Points

• Truist Financial raised its price target on Block from $77 to $81 and kept a "buy" rating, implying roughly 13.65% upside, while MarketBeat's consensus price target sits at $82.78 with a consensus rating of Moderate Buy.
• Block topped expectations this quarter with EPS of $0.65 versus a $0.26 consensus and revenue of $6.25 billion, up 3.6% year‑over‑year.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently — CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares at about $75 under a Rule 10b5‑1 plan, with insiders selling 49,725 shares in the last three months, while institutional investors hold roughly 70.4% of the stock.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) had its price target increased by research analysts at Truist Financial from $77.00 to $81.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a "buy" rating on the technology company's stock. Truist Financial's target price would indicate a potential upside of 13.65% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Zacks Research upgraded Block from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. BTIG Research reissued a "buy" rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial upgraded Block to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Arete Research upgraded Block from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $82.78.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ traded up $1.34 on Friday, reaching $71.27. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,041,290 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,793,335. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $60.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $64.73. Block has a 52-week low of $44.27 and a 52-week high of $82.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The company has a market cap of $42.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.85, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.61.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.71 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Block will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,318,925.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 500,816 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $37,561,200. This represents a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total value of $225,422.55. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,664,323.42. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 49,725 shares of company stock worth $3,401,393 over the last three months. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Block

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. IFM Investors Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Block by 2.7% during the first quarter. IFM Investors Pty Ltd now owns 106,655 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,418,000 after purchasing an additional 2,791 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Block by 17.8% in the 1st quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,074 shares of the technology company's stock worth $606,000 after buying an additional 1,520 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc. increased its stake in Block by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 4,010 shares of the technology company's stock worth $241,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 1st quarter valued at about $279,000. Finally, Sicart Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Block by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Sicart Associates LLC now owns 104,992 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $6,318,000 after buying an additional 6,018 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Block Company Profile

Block NYSE: XYZ is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block's portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.

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